There are certain rules that govern the affairs of any successful marriage. These rules or laws can be applied by any person. That is why someone who is not a Christian can have a good marriage if she/he applies these rules. That is the secret of some of our old parents who despite all, kept their marriage.
Wisdom such as
* When angry don’t talk.
* Calm down and don’t overreact
* When one person is angry the other person should try and keep calm
* A soft response always saves the day.
* Good food is the way to a man’s heart
All these are natural wisdom but have their root in biblical truths.
Let’s check out two of these biblical facts and truth.
This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
Gal 5:16 [KJV]
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Rom 8:1
It is actually in the marriage that you can practice walking in the spirit the most. That’s why it is said that marriage is for the spiritual and the matured.
Did you miss out on yesterday’s devotional, we’ve got you covered kindly go HERE. For KHC video Devotionals kindly go HERE
When we say you should be spiritual, it is for your good and for the good of your marriage.
Man has no original thoughts. Every thought is either from the devil or from God. When you are spiritually minded, you mind the things that pertain to God.
If you are carnally minded, you mind the things that pertain to the flesh. So you walk in the flesh when you give mind to the thoughts of the flesh.
For example, your flesh wants to curse, fume, and fight back when you are abused and pushed to the wall. Your flesh wants to fight to finish and have to last word.
Whereas, when you are spiritually minded and led by the spirit of God and yield to the dictates of the spirit, you want to do things that are contrary to what your flesh wants you to do.
It is actually wise to be controlled and allow yourself to be influenced by the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit dictates to us how to live and we yield to Him, we experience peace and joy. He makes all things work together for our good.
When the Holy Spirit leads us to pray instead of talking back in anger, when he tells us to smile back at our spouses’ rude response, when we find the strength to labor out of love and not out of annoyance etc then God can work on our behalf to give us a miracle in our home and marriages
May God give us the strength to always yield and listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit in our marriages.
God bless our marriage!
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I walk in the spirit and so I do not walk according to the dictates of my flesh
PRAYERS FOR THE DAY Lord, help me to continually follow after your voice in Jesus name
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Yes, you’ve got to celebrate yourself on your way to becoming better. God thinks you are a big deal, so don’t let the devil suggest to you otherwise.
You are very special to God and He loves you so much. Stop focusing on your failures and shortcomings. God understands our frail humanity. He knows our daily struggle against sin and the devil.
God says we should confess and repent of our sins and He will forgive us and remember them no more. He will blot out our sins and it will be like we never committed any sin.
That is good news. No matter how bad we may have been, God forgives and gives us another chance until we get it. God never gives up on us, instead, He celebrates us.
We should learn to enjoy the love, goodness, and mercy of God. A songwriter calls it the ‘overwhelming, never-ending love, reckless love of God. God’s love is so extravagant and reckless.
He pours His love and His power to forgive us in a reckless manner. We should take time to celebrate this love because we are the object of His love. In all of creation, He chose us as the focus of His love.
Did you miss out on yesterday’s devotional, we’ve got you covered kindly go HERE. For KHC video Devotionals kindly go HERE
Celebrate your victories no matter how little they are. Learn to pause and thank God because He has a plan for your life. He is taking you somewhere glorious and He is not done with you.
As you celebrate yourself, it becomes easy for you to celebrate your spouse and what God is doing in their lives as well.
All of us are a work in progress. God does not make failures and so we are sure we are not going to fail.
As you trust God to become better and to move on to maturity in the things of God, celebrate yourself and give thanks to God. This attitude of celebration is needed to keep us going.
God bless our marriage.
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I celebrate myself and my spouse and keep rejoicing.
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Lord, help me focus on what you are doing in my life.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY Ps 139:14[NKJV]I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.
ACTION PLAN FOR THE DAY Look for ten things to celebrate in your life
Most of the time, we get so much information that we do not care to be grounded in what we think we know and sometimes, head knowledge is different from real knowledge. You don’t know something until you are doing it.
So please don’t get itching ears as the Bible says for just what’s new. Let’s take time to be grounded and think about what I am writing about.
We have looked at
1. Know your spouse’s temperament
2. Don’t take each other for granted.
We will look at:
3. Don’t waste your energy being overly angry at your spouse.
We all get angry at our spouses. Our spouses do things we consider childish, silly, stupid, annoying, disobedient, etc, but please don’t fuss over any matter for so long.
The Bible told us to be angry but not to sin. Let the sun not go down on your anger.
Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
Eph 4:26
When we have these negative emotions, they do more harm than good. We are to forgive our spouse and not allow a root of bitterness.
Don’t let us dwell on the negative things they do. If not we give place to the devil and we will allow unforgiveness, hatred, suspicions, malice, wrath, etc
Anger in marriage weakens our bonds in marriage. We all can testify to the time we were angry at our spouses and would not talk to them. Sometimes, we are even on the same bed but wouldn’t talk to each other.
You may feel justifiable but you know what, little demons are rejoicing and having a nice time in your home and marriage. If this is not controlled on time, it may lead to some other negative effects.
Did you miss out on yesterday’s devotional, we’ve got you covered kindly go HERE. For KHC video Devotionals kindly go HERE
Take time to think about what we are angry about. Really some of the time, it is not worth it. We want to get rid of as many negative emotions as possible from our lives.
Be angry if you must be but please get over it on time and move on to becoming a better person with a good attitude. After all, we are all a work in progress.
May God grant us more understanding.
God bless our marriage.
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY We root out negative emotions from our marriage
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Help me, Lord to extend Mercy to my spouse in forgiveness
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY Eph 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
ACTION PLAN FOR THE DAY Forgive your spouse on time and don’t be angry
We started yesterday on this topic and we have looked at
1. Know your spouses temperament:
This will reduce a lot of tension, hurt and frustrations in marriage.
Today, we will be looking at
2. Don’t take yourselves for granted.
Our needs differ from each other. Part of the reasons we married was for companionship. We have to be gentle and patient when dealing with each other.
We must take time off our busy schedule to be with each other. Just sit around your spouse and talk.
Talking could be therapeutic and prevent certain bodily ailments. Before any issue gets out of hands, we should have talked about it.
Let nothing mean more than our spouses. Some have valued business, office projects, friends, money, party etc more than our spouse.
Did you miss out on yesterday’s devotional, we’ve got you covered kindly go HERE. For KHC video Devotionals kindly go HERE
Every other thing we achieve and do, the wealth we amass and the associate or business partner we get will all leave us, but the one person who will faithfully stay with us is our spouse.
Let us all build long lasting and strong relationship of love, respect and understanding. It is going to take hard work on our part but on the long run it will be worth it.
Take time to know the state of your spouse. Some people just sleep and wake up together, they don’t know their spouse, their challenges or what is going on with them.
If and when our relationship with our spouse is good and cordial, God will ensure that we prosper. The Holy Spirit will grant us the wisdom and give us divine connections to prosper us.
God help us all as we make efforts to meet each other’s needs.
God bless our marriage.
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I am becoming more loving and caring to my spouse
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Help me, Lord to take time out to love my spouse
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY Hebrews 13:5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
ACTION PLAN FOR THE DAY Think of ways you could be more loving
So many times our marriage is not what we would have wanted it to be.
Most of us have childhood dreams of a wonderful family, loving and understanding spouse, a beautiful peace to live in and everything rosy.
In our imagination of marriage and family life, we never dreamt or thought of hardship, lack, quarrels, arguments and problems. We sometimes think to ourselves, ‘I never bargained for this in marriage’.
God never promised us that life (marriage inclusive) was going to be a smooth ride. He only promised us ‘he will be with us’. He said ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’ Heb 13:5
He has promised us all that we need to weather the storm. He promised wisdom, Grace, peace, His word, the blood of Christ etc. But we have to make up our minds to use all these.
Did you miss out on yesterday’s devotional, we’ve got you covered kindly go HERE. For KHC video Devotionals kindly go HERE
Here are few helpful hints you can use as a married couple
1. Know your spouses temperament.
I will suggest every couple read about temperaments. Know what your temperament is and endeavor to know your spouse temperament is.
You cannot run away from who you are. You can only improve on it and become spirit controlled temperament.
I remember reading TimLahaye, it literally changed the way I saw myself and my husband. I know why I behave the way I do and I know why my husband behave the way he does. Knowing your temperaments, you can now work on improving yourself.
Joyce Meyer put it like this, “we are all a work in progress and we can enjoy our lives and marriage on our way to becoming a better you”
I will continue tomorrow by God’s Grace. God bless our home and marriages.
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I am becoming a better me.
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Give me understanding oh Lord.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY Hebrews 13:5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
